Toddler activities are always a big hit with my two year old! This toddler activity requires only a few materials and provides the opportunity for children to work on fine motor skills, color words, and basic math skills like counting and size comparison.
It seems like most of our toddler activities come about on accident. That’s exactly what happened with this one! I noticed Theo picking up some stray pom poms from a previous craft and putting them into things. After observing his interest in this, I gathered some materials and set up a fun pom pom scooping station for him!
Reminder: This activity uses pom poms that are small enough to be a choking hazard. If your child is under 3 years old and is still mouthing things, you may want to modify this activity to better suit your child. And, of course, never leave your child unattended when doing this activity.
Toddler Activities: Scooping Pom Poms
For this toddler activity you’ll only need a few materials! (This post contains affiliate links. Thank you so much for your support!)
Materials for Toddler Pom Pom Activity
- Large bowl
- Scoops in various sizes (We used our measuring cups.)
- Ice cube tray
- Pom poms in a variety of colors and sizes
Setting Up the Toddler Pom Pom Activity
Fill up your large bowl with all your pom poms. (One of Theo’s favorite materials to play and create with is pom poms as you can see from previous activities like our Toddler Christmas Activity and our Pom Poms and Mirror activity. So he was THRILLED to see a giant bowl filled with pom poms!)
Place your scoops and ice cube tray nearby and invite your toddler to play!
Theo immediately wanted to check out all the pom poms. He put his hand in the bowl and swirled them around. He took a few out to inspect. “Pink, Mommy!”
Theo started using the little scoop first. After filling up the scoop he’d often stop and name the colors that were inside.
He loved dumping them into the ice cube tray…
… and then using his fingers to put move the pom poms into different areas in the tray.
He had fun doing this for quite a while!
Then Theo decided to try out the large scoop. What a great opportunity to compare the amount that would fit into both a large and small scoops!
When Theo was done scooping, he loved taking out the different colored pom poms. We’d count them together!
I love how this simple toddler activity provided so many learning opportunities. And it was simple to clean up. We stuck all the supplies into the large bowl and kept them within reach for the next few days for more pom pom play!
Be sure not to miss these toddler posts on Buggy and Buddy!
Encouraging Toddler Independence at Snack Time
Animal Charades for Kids (Free Printable)
Creating with Plastic Canvas and Pipe Cleaners
Check out our ebook ABCs and 123s! You’ll find 40+ ways to encourage children to explore letters and numbers through play!
What a great idea! I love how colorful pom poms are. I’m thinking I could add some little cardboard squares with letters on to extend the activity for my 4 year old. Thank you so much for sharing with us on FB! I’ve added three of my favorites to the bottom of this week’s playful preschool post on Exploring Simple Science with TRAINS!!!
What a great and simple activity! I love the idea of using scoops of different sizes. We will definitely be doing this with my toddler soon!
I love the simplicity! This would be a lot of fun for the little ones!
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Great activity!! My toddler loves it!!
My 2 year old has a last with this. Great photos!
What can I replace for my 18-mos-old?? She would love this activity
Hi Michelle- They sell pompoms that are larger than normal. Those would be perfect!